


No Place For A Child

by Zarius



Category: The Demon Headmaster Series - Gillian Cross, cbbc
Genre: F/M, Inappropriate Use of Hypnosis Mics, MI6 Agents, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:07:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21629596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius
Summary: The winter thorn no longer bloomed like a rose; the winter belonged solely to the Hunter (tag for 1x07)
Relationships: Demon Headmaster/Dina Hunter
Kudos: 3





	No Place For A Child

_How far they have come in life_ thought the Headmaster as he locked eyes with Dinah Hunter.

Has it really been so long since they last met?

She had grown into quite the capable woman, where as once she was an all too unusual child, a protege to her peers, and for him his only true intellectual equal.

That spark of brilliance, a maturity and wisdom beyond her years, yet it was a continuous slave to her age.

Childhood was a waste of time, adulthood was far more productive, he knew this, and he wanted the world to understand this, for the children of the world to grasp the basic concept and put aside their juvenile delinquencies, and selflessly give themselves to fresh opportunities.

The only way to make them see that was to assert total control, to grab them at the age where they at their most impressionable.

Why couldn't Dinah have understood that?

Rose did, Rose wasn't as smart, but she was resourceful, she could create a perfect storm, she was the thorn in Dinah's side, not afraid to use her prickly personality to cause commotion and stir up trouble between Dinah and her little band of resistance.

How much of that was her, and how much of it was him giving the orders?

Even back then, he could never quite tell, he simply relished the opportunity to put her talents and troubles to productive use

He briefly wondered if Lizzie Warren's group required something to render their life blood cold to the touch, to freeze them where they stood, uncertain of what their next move would be.

And then it struck him as he thought of the lengths Dinah had gone to trap him, to try and fool him into thinking she would cut a deal with him to help expand his reach, where he could influence the very centre of British intelligence, her skills combined with his own.

She had come a long way, she had sacrificed so much by walking away from her previous life, letting all who knew her assume she had perished from an illness, and now here she was, abusing hologram technology and planning an elaborate trap which she hoped would end in total defeat for him, planting an explosive device under his nose, and hoping the distraction caused by negotiating a deal would blind him to what would be his ultimate destruction

Lizzie and her friends reacted as well as you could expect to the deception, not realising it's true purpose until it was too late, and their intervention had given the Headmaster an ideal advantage that even he could not anticipate.

Clever little Dinah hunter, not so little, and not so clever any longer.

She still thought like a child, still reacted to his perceived 'menace' like a child, trying to take life rather than bring it to heel.

She was hardly a model influence, and all these tricks she had pulled were bound to have left a lasting mark on Lizzie and her friends.

The Headmaster expected them to feel jaded, disheartened, and adapt a defeatist attitude, but not because Dinah had agreed to surrender her iron will to his in order to spare their lives, no, rather they would give up because of what Dinah almost did, for all her intelligence and good standing, she had been willing to use them as pawns in an assassination attempt.

For those four friends, Blake included, school was out and the first thing out of the gate for them was innocence. The same innocence he had deprived Dinah of many years ago, to the point she had to recruit others into her inner circle so as to claim their innocence too, to let them know this was no place for a child, that this was war.

Were they prepared to fight a war?

Where was Rose now? He wondered.

Did it matter any longer?

The winter thorn no longer bloomed like a rose; the winter belonged solely to the Hunter.

A hunter he now controlled.

She was his.

And her childhood was at an end.


End file.
